THEORIES OF THE BIFURCATION OF NATURE In my previous lecture I criticised the concept of matter as the substance whose attributes we perceive.

This way of thinking of matter is, I think, the historical reason for its introduction into science, and is still the vague view of it at the background of our thoughts which makes the current scientific doctrine appear so obvious.

Namely we conceive ourselves as perceiving attributes of things, and bits of matter are the things whose attributes we perceive.
In the seventeenth century the sweet simplicity of this aspect of matter received a rude shock.

The transmission doctrines of science were then in process of elaboration and by the end of the century were unquestioned, though their particular forms have since been modified.
The establishment of these transmission theories marks a turning point in the relation between science and philosophy.

The doctrines to which I am especially alluding are the theories of light and sound.